New Celtic Thread - They Beat Barcelona (1 Viewer)

[Cormcolash]

Of course this couldn't have happened, because they are shite, useless, play in a joke league, etc etc

 

[ann post]

i went out for a quiet pint lastnight. ran into glaswegian friends. 'happy' would be an understatement.

 

[rettucs]

I only heard this this morning.

well done to them.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

Of course this couldn't have happened, because they are shite, useless, play in a joke league, etc etc

Indeed, it's slightly unrealistic to expect a team that usually walks their league playing dross like Sevilla and Royal Madrid every week to be able to go to Glasgow and take on a team full of young, hungry, dynamic ball-players like Celtic.

I was in a similar state to Rod after this match, tears streaming down my cheeks.

 

[maims bond]

Watched the first half, the defending was very solid. Seems the best way to do Barcelona is the Inter/Chelsea/Celtic 10 men in the box hit them on the break exploding heart technique.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I was on a poxy work team building exercise at a bowling alley.

Open bar though. So I got the barman to switch one of the silent TVs to Fox Deportes and watched it in all its bum-clenching glory.

Viva Celtic!

 

[Anthem]

Watched the first half, the defending was very solid. Seems the best way to do Barcelona is the Inter/Chelsea/Celtic 10 men in the box hit them on the break exploding heart technique.

Teams have cottoned on to them and will follow suit. Barca need to come up with a new strategy to deal with that , if not then I can't see them winning the CL.

 

[washingcattle]

This reminds me of the time I said Barcelona don't defend properly and everyone had a right go at me.

It reminds me of this because Barcelona don't defend properly.

A corner and a big punt up field huh? Maybe Stoke could beat them after all.

P.S Fuck you Steven Gerrard.

 

[Cormcolash]

Teams have cottoned on to them and will follow suit. Barca need to come up with a new strategy to deal with that , if not then I can't see them winning the CL.

Yeah, I agree, everyone knows what they are about, which is trying to knock lots of little through balls into the box from around the middle of the 20 yard area. The amount of times they could've gone down the wings for crosses last night, but instead brought it back into the centre where Celtic had an extra man, was mad. Basically their big weakness is the lack of aerial ability.

In regard to their defence, apparently half their best defenders are out injured (they did only bring Pique on as a sub in the second half) but they are definitely exposed by strong quick strikers alright. In saying that, the second goal last night came from Xavi making some ludicrous attempt to control a goal kick, and completely missing the ball instead. You wouldn't be expecting players like him to do that too often.

 

[ann post]

jim mcguinness.

 

[Unicron]

Teams have cottoned on to them and will follow suit. Barca need to come up with a new strategy to deal with that , if not then I can't see them winning the CL.

Their style has adapted somewhat over the years, Guardiola's last season was punctuated by experiments with 3 at the back, diamond midfields and the occasional 424, Villanova has them getting the ball forward a bit quicker this year.

Fair fucks to Celtic, wonderful result, but i've heard loads of overly simplistic bollcks in the last couple of days saying that that's how we could have beaten Spain in the summer. Obviously Trap's great failing was not having the ball crash off of the post a few times and Manuella being unable to translate "Shay, I wan't you to make a series of world class saves" accurately.

 

[Cormcolash]

Celtic had a bit of pace up the pitch with Miku and Samaras, which meant they were actually able to hold the ball away from their own half for brief periods. That led to the first goal.
Against Spain, Ireland had Robbie fucking Keane. Which meant the ball came right back into the Irish half every single time.

 

[rettucs]

jim mcguinness.

good for him. Terrible for Donegal though

 

[Unicron]

Celtic had a bit of pace up the pitch with Miku and Samaras, which meant they were actually able to hold the ball away from their own half for brief periods. That led to the first goal.
Against Spain, Ireland had Robbie fucking Keane. Which meant the ball came right back into the Irish half every single time.

Yes, but the point being though that while celtic were set up to break effectively (and kudos to Lennon for having the balls to play with 2 up against them) Barca still had plenty of chances to score, relying on your goalie to be brilliant isn't that great a masterstroke, it's having one of those nights when things go your way. Sure even Almunia had miracle games against Barcelona when we got results off them.

 

[ann post]

good for him. Terrible for Donegal though

oh i know. maybe his legacy will get us through next year, his right hand man here was pretty solid. I can understand how he'd be courted though. fair play to him indeed. he has a lot of emotional stock in the all ireland though, i could see him still wanting to try and push a second all ireland before going totally into celtic.

 

[Cormcolash]

Yes, but the point being though that while celtic were set up to break effectively (and kudos to Lennon for having the balls to play with 2 up against them) Barca still had plenty of chances to score, relying on your goalie to be brilliant isn't that great a masterstroke, it's having one of those nights when things go your way. Sure even Almunia had miracle games against Barcelona when we got results off them.

Or you might have a really good goalie?
No harm to Shay, but he was obviously unfit during the Euros, he hadn't fully recovered from injury.
Also having a good defence helps too, instead if just relying on Richard Dunne to do everything.

 

[Unicron]

Or you might have a really good goalie?

It certainly helps, and Forrester is a good keeper, but good players can have bad nights and like with Almunia, average players can sometimes have really good ones. I'm trying hard not to use the word "lucky" because it'd be totally unfair to Celtic, and disrespectful to how well they played, collectively and individually and to the work that they put in (and I think this has been overlooked, their dscipline too, only 2 bookings in the 2 games, one of those was in injury times, often sides will pick up cheap bookings against Barcelona and that impacts on how the players can go into challenges for the rest of the game) they deserved their win no question. But what I'm saying is that it was a night where things did click together for them, and I've seen it used as a stick to beat Trap with (not here, but elsewhere) and I think that's just a tad reactionary and poorly thought out.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

and I've seen it used as a stick to beat Trap with (not here, but elsewhere) and I think that's just a tad reactionary and poorly thought out.

I'd say Celtic could play Barca another 10 times and not win a single one, to be fair.

Thing is though, compare Lennon's "When I took over, I wanted to bring the thunder back" spine-tingling post-match quote to Trap's bleatings about how Ireland should never be expecting to get anything out of a game against a team like Germany.

I think people pine for the old "we can beat anyone" mentality that Irish teams used to have. My take, anyway.

 

[Anthem]

It certainly helps, and Forrester is a good keeper, but good players can have bad nights and like with Almunia, average players can sometimes have really good ones. I'm trying hard not to use the word "lucky" because it'd be totally unfair to Celtic, and disrespectful to how well they played, collectively and individually and to the work that they put in (and I think this has been overlooked, their dscipline too, only 2 bookings in the 2 games, one of those was in injury times, often sides will pick up cheap bookings against Barcelona and that impacts on how the players can go into challenges for the rest of the game) they deserved their win no question. But what I'm saying is that it was a night where things did click together for them, and I've seen it used as a stick to beat Trap with (not here, but elsewhere) and I think that's just a tad reactionary and poorly thought out.

Celtic's defensives performance was better than Chelsea's and as good as Inter's when they both went on to win the CL Dunphy (love or loathe him) made a fantastic point when he said that Celtic's man mangemnet by Lennon was simply outstanding. He inspired confidence and belief in his players by telling them that they could beat these guys. Trap on the other hand keeps saying our national squad are a shit team with shit players. No wonder Germany trounced us 6-1.

 

[Hector Grey]

Celtic look like the best team in Scotland. Barca are finished. Messi is shite. THey're sussed, teams know that if you score more goals than them, you'll beat them. They're fucked. It's over.